Gender neutral language

The other day, I was listening to a ghazal. I observed that both lover and lovee were males. I searched for articles on this. One view on this was that the intention was to make the poem universal and hence it's not masculine but gender neutral. So we should view them from gender neutral perspective and not from homosexuality angle. The other view was that, homosexuality was never a sin in Indian society hence poets wrote freely about their homosexual love. We can't view them from post-British anti-homosexual angle.

I'm in no place to analyze them, nevertheless, I'm interested in gender neutral language. I suppose not just in poems, we need gender neutral language in many places. Our attempt to achieve it, using he or she or singular they, looks very clumsy. The gendered language itself was an innovation in our speech once declensions started appearing (and sometimes disappearing at a later time). These innovations introduced new terms or affixes to the language. But what we are trying to do is to use the existing terms and try to give it a dual meaning or elaborating them. Why is it impossible to come up with new animate terms for gender neutral language? The gender neutral language might have started as a correction to patriarchy but now the lack of it looks more like a limitation.

Tayi and Bayi

When I was going through the article on Swati Tirunal (see my previous post), what surprised me was the association of 'bai(bayi)' with the females of royal family. The term 'bai' is commonly found among Marathis. I guess the popularity or influence of the Maratha kingdom where the royal females had 'bai' attached to their name probably made this Malayali royal family to adopt the term as a honorific.

However, even though Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language, the root of 'bai' appears to be Dravidian (not a surprise as majority Marathis plausibly lapsed Dravidians). The term 'ayi' means she/mother. The masculine term is aya (Te: na+aayana -> my father). The masculine term for 'bai' is 'bua'/'bava'. I guess 'ua'/'ava' is more likely -ava/aya another Dravidian term for he/father.

In Kannada, aayi is mostly used in the formal term for mother, tayi -> tan (self) + aayi (mother). But what does the prefix 'ba' in Marathi mean? It doesn't seem Dravidian. Could it be some Indo-Aryan term meaning  self or my?

Update:
In Kannada and Telugu, the term 'bava' means cousin(male)/brother-in-law. What does the prefix 'ba' mean in Kannada and Telugu?

Sri in Malayalam and my great-great grandmother

Sri, the honorific addressing term in Sanskrit (equivalent to Mr/Ms in English), has its own forms in different Indian languages. In Tulu and Kannada, it's 'siri' though not used as a honorific (Sri is used instead), it's used in compound terms. In Tamil, it's 'tiru'. I was wondering about the equivalent in Malayalam.

My maternal great-great grandomother's -whose mtDNA and maternal lineage I carry- name was supposedly Chirudeyi (from an official record), where 'sri' is part of the compound name. However, her descendants remember her name as Chiridevi(Skt: Sridevi).

Now if I ask the Malayalis who speak the standard dialect they claim neither chiru nor deyi is part of Malayalam. I couldn't find any references online (where most of them use Sri).

One example I could refer was the name Swati Tirunal. Now, is that 'tiru' a Tamil import or part of Malayalam? If latter is the case, how about 'chiru'? If we consider my other relatives' pronunciation, chiri, which sounds closer to Tulu term 'siri' and the other part 'deyi' which is the same as Tulu equivalent of devi (devi -> deyi) then we can conclude that Malayalam 'tiru' became 'chiru' in region closer to Tulu. But my relatives use the Sanskrit term 'devi' instead. Unfortunately, I couldn't find Malayalm equivalent of 'devi'.

About baba and pilla

I was going through the BBC article on the origin of the word 'king'.

The Anglo-Saxon "cyning" from cyn or kin, and -ing meaning "son of" evokes images of long-gone tribes choosing as leader a favoured son who is mystically representative of their common identity.

I suppose somewhat similar idea is behind pan-India term 'babu' and Dravidian term 'pilla/pillai' which were the titles of high officials ( but pilla is now mostly associated with certain castes in Tamil and Malayalam regions). However, baba denotes affectionate term for son and pilla for child in general in Dravidian lands.

It appears both terms are of Indo-European origin. So, probably assimilated IE speakers in Dravidian lands brought with them the Proto-IE idea of a favoured son.

babu
pilla

Notes on Dravidian Words - viii

Bathukamma is supposedly a unique festival of Telangana region. The term 'bathuku' refers to 'life' in Telugu. The equivalent Kannada word is 'baduku'. And here lies the mystery.

The native Dravidian terms that start with 'b' in Kannada should start with 'v' in Telugu. I wonder why baduku is an anomaly here.

The aspects of the festival are starkly patriarchal and resemble Indo-Aryan festivals like 'Karva Chauth' or 'Raksha Bandhan', generally, not found in Dravidian lands. This festival is restricted to only a section of Telugus.

There are two strange things here.
1. The word doesn't follow regular Dravidian sound changes between Kannada and Telugu
2. The aspects of the festival appear alien to Dravidian ethos.

I wonder whether the term 'baduku' is derived from an Indo-Aryan word. Tamil and Malayalam tend to nativize the terms. However, Kannada and Telugu aren't that fastidious. But what about the festival?

Notes on Dravidian Words - vii

In Kasaragod Malayalam, the word for 'housewarming' is 'porakudi'. Where pora means house and kudi also means house but probably takes the verbal form 'residing'. I was fascinated by this compound word. The verb form of kudi is hardly used. The other meanings, farmer or house, are more mainstream.

Then I started analyzing its Kannada equivalent, manehokkalu, where mane means house and hokkalu means entrance. I felt something was wrong there. If I go by the Malayalam format, it should be 'maneyokkalu' (mane+okkalu), where okkalu means residing.  Then I confirmed from a born Kannada speaker that the word was indeed maneyokkalu.

However, similar to kudi, the popular usage is okkaliga -> farmer. I suppose because of my unfamiliarity with its multiple usages, somewhere in the past, I over-corrected the word to hokkalu from okkalu. It's unclear whether the term hokkalu is itself correct or not. I most likely modified the term 'hokku' meaning enter.

It's interesting that the same idea has been implemented in the compound word in both languages using all different words.

Notes on Dravidian Words - vi

Neuter plural in Kannada:
In Kannada, the neutral gender singluar is adu. The plural form is avu. However, people have generally felt comfortable using avugaLu as the plural form. -kaLu generally form plural of a word in Kannada. Even in places where people use 'avu' for plural, they prefer to add -kaLu in various cases (eg. avugaLige, avugaLannu etc..).

I think the problem arises because both adu and avu were initially neuter singulars. As declensions appeared in languages these took various forms. In many Dravidian languages, male and female third peson pronouns were built upon neuter avu. For example, in Kannada, avanu -> he, avaLu -> she. In some languages 'adu' is the base word. For example, in Pengo, adel -> she. Interestingly, Kannada also has masculine form of 'ad'. The word Ata or Atanu could be found in literature though I haven't come across its spoken usage. Its feminine form Ake's origin is mystery to me.

In Kannada, avu became plural for adu. However, this appears to be largely a semi-optimization and never really taken by native speakers. Kannada speakers still by and large use 'avu' in singular sense though never as a singular term.

Notes on Dravidian Words - side note

Some of the Dravidian proto-sounds that I have discussed till now.

f -> p
f -> h
Correspondence: Basque f -> h

b -> v
Correspondence: French b -> v

r -> zh -> y
Correspondence: Scottish/Scandinavian r -> zh

r -> D -> L
Unsubstantiated

vowel ending -> no vowel ending
Correspondence: English distinct -e ending to loss of -e

Notes on Dravidian Words - v

Vowel Ending:
Among South Dravidian languages Telugu and Kannada end their words with a vowel. However, Tamil and Malayalam lack it. Which is the proto-state?

If you consider English, until 14th century the ending -e was pronounced distinctly by the English. However, the later generations dropped it. But since spellings were standardized by that time, the written language still shows the words with -e ending. But it is clear that the old forms of languages generally tend to have vowel ending. Hence Kannada and Telugu have retained the older forms.

In the case of English, the time changed vowel ending. But in the case of Dravidian languages it is geography. Though it should be noted here that North Karnataka is more at ease with vowel ending than South Karnataka.

Notes on Dravidian Words - iiic

He He He...A Malayali poking fun at Tamils

In Tamil Nadu, people tend to pronounce 'zha' as 'la'. So God help me if M.K. Stalin's brother M.K. Azhagiri is a cousin of Dante Alighieri.

The whole issue arises because of total misunderstanding about migration of people to Tamil region. The early development of Tamil literature has muddied the objectivity of the Dravidian linguistics.

In my opinion, if one traces the migration route then Tamils are a mix of Proto-Malayali and Proto-Kannada population. It appears Proto-Malayalam has become defacto lingo whereas Proto-Kannada influence could be found in the pronunciation.

I would say zh->l change can never happen. The change should be
r->zh->y (as it's observed in Scottish and American English and probably in Norwegian too).

Other change should be;
d->l

If you observe Kerala, people would use either 'zh' or 'y' but never 'l'. In these words Tulu shows 'r'.

If Dravidian linguists keep in mind Out of Africa theory then it would help them in their work. The shortest route to Tamil Nadu is thro' west-south coastal India. This route divides into Kerala and Karnataka branches. I can still see a certain pattern in r->zh->y changes and this is not as ambiguous as claiming that since 'zh' tongue position itself is ambiguous inside the mouth all kinds of other sounds 'd', 'l', 'r', 'y' can arise.

Since languages not only change with distance but also with time, I don't think this 'oldest' or 'youngest' languages have any meaning. One can only talk in terms of older region and younger region based on migration.

Of course, If Jayaschandran thinks Tamils wrongly pronounce 'zh' then his understanding is wrong. 'l' is the sound they inherited from their proto-Kannada ancestors whereas literary Tamil phonetics is influenced by Tamils of Proto-Malayali ancestry.

Notes on Dravidian Words - iia

In my previous post I mentioned about Yadava-Ideya connection based on Ravi Mundkur's post on their etymology. I think that is a mistake.

I was reading "Caste, Society And Politics In India From The Eighteenth
Century To The Modern Age" by Susan Bayly. According to her, Yadava identity of cowherds in north/east India is a recent phenomenon. During 19th century many castes tried to have a dignified identity for themselves in colonial India. Before nineteenth century cowherds were called Goala(Govala...literally cowherd) in those areas. In caste India, the name of the occupation also carries shame and can be used as an abusive word. Whatever the reasons the name Yadava is a new identity and can't be equated with Ideyar of South India.

However, this will change nothing in my arguments on the formation of Dravidian society. South Indian herders were also known as Golla traditionally (now many of them are taking up Yadava caste name). So that still shows continuity of Golla identity from north to south just like their R1a1.

Notes on Dravidian Words -iiib

Couple of examples on r->zh formation in the region of Tamil Nadu.

An Orissan inscription uses the term Tramira. In Tamil speech it has become 'Tamizh'.

Inscriptional evidences point out that Chola was derived from Chora. Tamil's have turned it into 'Chozha'.

In both cases, we can see r->zh sound changes in historical times.

Notes on Dravidian Words - iv

Present day Dravidian languages mostly use Sanskrit or Prakrit words for 'love' and derived words*. Of course, here by 'love' I mean attraction between man and woman. I was checking for native terms at Starling database.

The striking feature of all those terms is that they are observed mostly in South Dravidian literate branches.

Because of fixed mentality on part of many Dravidian linguists a single term 'ar' meaning love or desire has found three entries in dictionary, viz., DED 0281, 0301, 0381. I think Kota 'ayl' meaning twin does not belong there. Anyway, in my opinion r, L, zh are all sound changes of alveolar approximant r.

Then there are couple of entries that look intriguing.
1. Kadala(DED 1445): This is supposedly observed in SD languages. At present only Tamil uses it heavily in movies. I was reading an old Kannada work "Vaddaradhane". There I came across its usage in a sentence "paradana kAdalise paDuva magaM"(= son loved by the merchant). According to editor's note, Kadala is derived either from Sanskirt kAtara or Prakrit kAyara meaning lover, lovable or affectionate.

Vaddaradhane is a Jain work supposedly written by Shivakotyacharya. It is an Old Kannada work dated around 950CE. Jains heavily used Jain Prakrit (Magadhi Prakrit) terms in their works. As such Kannada works do show heavy influence in the literature. Though very few of them have become part of native parlance. And Kadala isn't part of spoken Kannada vocabulary.

Was Jain influence in native life (and not only in literature) stronger in Tamil region? Or a big chunk of Magadhi Prakrit speakers became part of Tamil speakers in the past? Anyway, I need more examples and probably native terms in Magadhi Prakrit regions of East India.

2. *par (DED 3964): I think the Telugu term 'perima' is too close to Sanskrit 'prema'. Either Telugu is a wrong addition to that list or again we have to check whether it's an adstrate effect because of assimilated Magadhi Prakrit speakers. Only tribal languages part of literate SD languages show these terms.

*Okay, now it's almost always the English word.

Notes on Dravidian Words - iiia

I have to make a major correction in the sound changes that I discussed in my last post.

Coastal Dravidian route:(Tulu->Malayalam->north-western Tamil Nadu)
alveolar approximant r -> alveolar trill/tap r (Tulu)
alveolar approximant r/alveolar trill/tap r -> retroflex approximant r/retroflex palatal approximant r -> palatal approximant y (Malayalam,Tamil, few other SD-I tribal languages)

Correction to the following:

During SD-I and SD-II split, alveolar approximant r, might have given rise to an allophone alveolar plosive d. Which became retroflex plosive in SD-II languages. But I think this should have happened with a big chunk of SD-I speakers too.

alveolar approximant r -> alveolar plosive d -> retroflex plosive D

I think it should be;
alveolar approximant r->retroflex flap r->retroflex plosive (another group of allophones)

On a side note, this is what I found about Burrow, Emeneau and Krishnamurti's Dravidian etymology Dictionary.

Our understanding of Dravidian is strongly related to the Dravidian etymological dictionary of Burrow and Emeneau (1984 and online). However, this is very Tamil-centric and the literature constantly confuses its head entries with proto-Dravidian (e.g. Krishnamurti 2003).
-Roger Blench

My understanding is that Tamil literature might have preserved the words that would have lost in other languages. Also, it might have preserved the cases and other grammatical structures that are no longer used. However, when it comes to consonant sound changes(vowel sound changes aren't all that important), the old Tamil literature cannot be referred as the sounds are native to a geographical region.

Acknowledgments:
Commenter Varttik (who doesn't agree with this anyway).

Notes on Dravidian Words - iii

Retroflex Approximant zh:
The retroflex approximant zha is as of now still pronounced by majority of Malayalis and few Tamils (Bhadriraju Krishnamurti)*. It is a rather intriguing sound found in old literature of SD languages. Some of my observations.

1. Present day written and spoken Telugu employs retroflex Da, Kannada employs retroflex La and Tulu employs alveolar(trill or tap ... no idea) ra

2. But many Nilgiri dialects and Malayalam spoken in Kasaragod and many Tamils employ palatal ya.

3. Generally, Telugus use Da, where you find SD-I speakers use La or Ra.
eg.
kOLi(Ka)kOri(Tulu)kODi(Te)kOyi (Kasaragod Malayalam)kOzhi(Standard Malayalam) (=chicken)

4. Present day Malayalis turn 'r' sound in foreign words into 'zh' sound.
eg. 1. Parsee is written/pronounced as Pazhsee.
2. University is written as Univezhsity.


Then what could have been the original sound? I used to think, because of my Kannada background, that is basically an exotic La because 'La' is used in Kannada where Tamil/Malayalam use 'zha'. However, I was told by a linguist that *zh sound must be constructed in SD/PD as a rhotic. Of course, this was before I carefully listened to Malayali pronunciation of 'zha'. Malayali pronunciation is exotic 'r'. And according to Wikipedia this is equivalent to present American English retroflex approximant 'r'(in some places). But in my opinion, Malayali pronunciation is retroflex palatal approximant(or exotic 'rya').

It appears AE retroflex r is an allophone of alveolar approximant r (Scottish English). Last night I was listening to this "500 miles" song(which kindled this entry). I thought "Lord" was pronounced like "Loyd" with palatal approximant y.
Listen to Petey, Paul and Mayi singing with the palatal approximant.


My construction of PD sound:
The original PD sound could have been alveolar approximant r. This we can observe in Tulu where alveolar trill or tap r is used. This alveolar approximant r gave rise to retroflex approximant r(zh) (in my opinion, retroflex palatal approximant r) which in turn gave rise to palatal approximant y. Therefore, all three are allophones.

alveolar approximant r -> alveolar trill/tap r (Tulu)
alveolar approximant r/alveolar trill/tap r -> retroflex approximant r/retroflex palatal approximant r -> palatal approximant y (Malayalam,Tamil, few other SD-I tribal languages)

During SD-I and SD-II split, alveolar approximant r, might have given rise to an allophone alveolar plosive d. Which became retroflex plosive in SD-II languages. But I think this should have happened with a big chunk of SD-I speakers too.

alveolar approximant r -> alveolar plosive d -> retroflex plosive D

The influence of geography changed retroflex plosive D into retroflex plosive L in Proto-Kannada.
retroflex plosive D -> retroflex lateral L

Migration to Tamil region:
Based on the above arguments, I would say the youngest Dravidian region, Tamil Nadu, had two defining migration patterns. The Proto-Tamils were mix of Proto-Malayalis (retained in allophones zh, y) and Proto-Kannadigas (retained in L). Standardization of written script probably happened in a region where Proto-Malayali migration was dominant. This script was probably became model for Proto-Kannada script too.

* There is a hilarious story about Malayali zh and Tamil zh. A southern Malayali chieftain was troubled by an unending Tamil migration to his region. He was scared that Malayalis would become minorities in that land. However, it was tough to block the migration as there was a lot of to-and-fro movements from Malayalis too. At the entry point of Tamil/Malayalam regions he created posts and put a 'chicken' test to incoming people. Every person who wants to enter Malayalam region had to pronounce kOzhi. According to the story, Tamils would pronounce it as kOLi (like Kannadigas) and would be turned back.

Acknowledgments:
My wife(the zha Malayali) who doesn't think 'lord' is 'loyd' in that song.

Notes on Dravidian Words - ii

In the last post we have seen anomalies to Dravidian b-v isogloss due to Magadhi Prakrit adstratum. I believe these words entered between 500BCE-0, or the fifth phase where guilds entered from the eastern regions[1]. But there could be IE borrows into Dravidian languages that show typical sound changes comparable to to core Dravidian vocabulary. And these IE migrations could be part of Dravidian expansion in South India from Central or West India.

One of the earliest IE migrations to South India was that of herders. Known in north India as Yadava; their old identity in South was Ideya(Yes, herders in South India have appreciable frequency of Y-Haplogroup R1a1). Ravi Mundkur has clearly shown that Ideya is in fact derived from Yadava[2]. I have already mentioned that herders might have migrated south around 1000BCE[1]. Perhaps Dravidian expansion to south started between 1500BCE-1000BCE. Let's examine a word related to herding.

The term for cattle (pazu in Sanskrit) has entered Dravidian languages. In Kannada, cow is called hasu.(Please note there is also a Dravidian word hasu(Le) in Kannada which means child. Similar words for child, boy, calf ..payal, pay, peyy etc... is found in other Dravidian languages but different from present word which is borrow from IA languages). In Kasaragod variant of Malayalam it is called pay. The s->y change between Kannada and Malayalam can be observed here. Incidentally, standard dialect of Malayalam employs the Sanskrit word.

References:
1. Origins of Indians version-9.2
2. Iddya to Yedapadavu

Notes on Dravidian Words - i

bAgu is a common Telugu word meaning 'good', 'well being' etc... I didn't find the cognates in SD-I languages. Dravidian Etymology Dictionary(DED) mentions Tamil word vAkku meaning perfection is a cognate. This must be an exception where a Telugu word has 'ba' instead of 'va' while Tamil shows 'va'. Generally, Tamil and Telugu have 'va' sound where Kannada/Tulu have 'ba'. Unfortunately, equivalent Kannada and Tulu words are not available. So is the case with Malayalam, according to DED.

But today I was reminded of a word in my variant of Malayalam. Though standard dialect of Malayalam uses nallad for good; we say pAG. eg. ad pAGilla; nI maTTed nOkkiko(That is not good; you check the other one). However, we use pAG mostly with non-human objects and nalled with humans.

Update: Commenter Mallinath has come up with few more exceptions to 'ba', 'va' rule. But of the three words he mentioned two appeared to be Indo-Aryan import to Dravidian languages, baNDi, baNDa and the remaining one, bratuku, appears to be a borrow into Telugu from Kannada(I assume because the same noun form is said to be a borrow into Tamil from Kannada, according to DED*).

While ruling out all these exceptions, I became suspicious of the word bAgu. Then suddenly I remembered a stupid dialogue from a horrible Hindi movie. "mErE man ko bhAyA; mE kutta kAT ke khAyA" (My mind felt good; I cut a dog and ate). Indeed, Telugu bAgu and Malayalam pAG are borrows from IA languages. I have already mentioned that a big chunk of IE speakers assimilated with Dravidians. I consider the language of these people was Magadhi Prakrit. Therefore, any exceptions to 'va', 'ba' rule (which I firmly believe is geographical for Dravidians) must be checked from Magadhi Prakrit angle.

* Please find the links to Dravidian dictionaries at the sidebar(Starling and Digital Dictionaries of Asia).

Kannada form of 'Chennai'

Once Dravidians became stagnant in present day regions the new words coined by one of them have entered as foreign words into other Dravidian languages. They no longer associate with the sound changes of their common vocabulary. Good thing is that we can still deduce native forms of other Dravidian language words.

Today, I would like to discuss about Kannada form of the capital of Tamil Nadu, Chennai.

Kannada words with initial ki start with ce in Tamil.
eg. kivi(Kannada) -> cevi(Tamil) (=ear)

Kannada words that end with e end with ai in Tamil.
eg. kOTe(Kannada) -> kOTTai(Tamil) (=fort)

Hence, the Kannada form of cennai is kinne.

Similarly, Tulu form -> kenne
Malayalam form -> cenna

Origins of Malayalis-?.1.1

In my previous post I had mentioned Caldwell and Logan's arguments for Malayali words for east and west. While Caldwell derives it from Proto-Tamils' movement from east to west; whereas Logan derives it from sun's movement.

I'll again quote Caldwell's words here.

The Malayalam word for east, kizhakku, means beneath, and because melku (west) means above, Dr. Caldwell argues that the Malayalis must have come from the Tamil country east of the ghats, since there they had the low level of the ocean on the east and the high level of the ghat mountains on the west.

Other day, I was checking Tamil words for east and west. To my utter surprise Tamils also have the same words, kizh and mekku, for east and west.

Now, if Proto-Tamils became Malayalis then Tamils above ghats shouldn't have the same words. That in my opinion shows it's Proto-Malayalis who became Tamils(at least a section of them). This of course goes well with my old theory that Mangalore is the urheimat of SD-I speakers. The diversity of SD-I languages along Mangalore-Nilgiri belt in fact shows SD-I speakers first moved along coastal Karnataka region then migrated inwards.

Directions in Dravidian languages:
In my opinion, the directions in Dravidian languages need to be studied properly. Only in SD-I there are independent words for north and south common to most of the languages in the branch. For east and west all the words appear to be local innovations after languages became independent. However, it is clear that none of these were part of Proto-Dravidian or Proto-Dravidians were directionless people.

The words for north and south, baDagu and teGku, are common to Kannada, Tamil, Tulu and Malayalam. The words for east and west are mUDu and paDu respectively in Kannada(Tulu). However, Malayalam word for east is 'kilakku' and west is, though Caldwell/Logan call it 'melku', at present 'padinjayir' which cognates with Kannada 'padu' is in the common usage.

Kannada east and west are directly connected to sun's movement where 'mudu' means 'form' or 'rise' and 'padu' means 'fall', 'die' or 'set'. In fact, Malayalam west 'padinjayir' means 'setting sun'(padu + njayir (sun, nesara in Kannada)).

Origin of my name

My name has been a source of humiliation (natha in its corrupted form ...nAta ... means foul smell in Kannada), source of mistaken sexual identity (manju is invariably a female name outside my native state Karnataka), source of uncomfortable closeness(I have observed some nick names, like manju, are difficult to take for stiff upper lip kind of people...including me->yes, that is preemptive strategy of image development). Nevertheless, there is no denying that it has been a source of much amusement for me and for people around me(along with my alliterator second name-> should it be the first name?). But my greatest amusement comes from the etymology of this word.

Sivaite, Buddhist or Ghostistic?
The first etymology that I heard was, the guardian (nAtha) of ice (maMju) mountains (Himalayalas, or Mount Kailasa) or Siva. The name became popular because of a famous temple in my region. Until very recent I would explain this etymology to people. It must be noted here that though the name sounds so much north Indian only in my region Siva is called Manjunatha. I found it bit strange. But as my understanding grew I found this name in fact has a Buddhist beginning.

The first Manjunatha temple was built at a place called Kadri in Mangalore. However, as I have already discussed before this was in fact a Buddhist monastery which was converted to Saiva temple. This event deals with assimilation of Tantrik Buddhism with Tantrik Sivaism. One of the Buddhist deities in that monastery was Manjusri. In my opinion, since Manjusri is an important Bodhisattva for Tantrik Buddhism the name Manjunatha might have been conceived from Manjusri. This I felt is the most plausible scenario. This was until the blogger Ravi Mundkur brought one more angle to the name.

In his series of posts on Kadri and Natha cult he proposes the native beginning for this name from ghostistic tradition. Ravi has developed his view based on legends surrounding Natha cult figure Matsyendranatha. Manju was supposedly one of his sons and a spirit worship was inititated after his death. This spirit Manju became deity Manju Natha in Saiva tradition. I am not yet convinced of this angle as Buddhist deities getting Saiva make over has been observed in the history. And legends can not be authentic accounts.

From Wikipedia on Avalokitesvara;

according to recent research, the original form was Avalokitasvara with the ending svara ("sound, noise"), which means "sound perceiver", literally "he who has perceived sound" (i.e. perceiver of the cries of the sentient beings who need his help). This is the exact equivalent of the Chinese translation Guan Yin. This name was later supplanted by the form containing the ending -īśvara, which does not occur in Sanskrit before the seventh century. The original form Avalokitasvara already appears in Sanskrit fragments of the fifth century.[5]

The original meaning of the name fits the Buddhist understanding of the role of a bodhisattva. The reinterpretation presenting him as an īśvara shows a strong influence of Shaivism, as the term īśvara was usually connected to the Hindu notion of a creator god and ruler of the world. Attributes of such a god were transmitted to the bodhisattva

When Avalokitasvara can become Avalokitesvara, Manjusri turning into Manjunatha isn't all that strange. But what came out of Ravi's posts is my ignorance about the word 'manju'.

Until Ravi mentioned about a Sanskrit word "manju" meaning beautiful, charming, pleasant etc..., I believed the word manju in Manjunatha is in fact a Sanskrit word meaning ice, coldness, dew, fog etc...! It turns out that manju that I know is in fact a Dravidian word. I didn't know. Had I known before I would have grown into Indic manju than Dravidian manju.

Therefore, the common derivation of Manjunatha for Siva is a mix of Dravidian word manju with Indic word natha. However, ice formations are not observed in South India therefore 'dew' manju might have been stretched to incorporate 'ice' in recent times.

May be Buddhist Manjusri and Kannada word manju together might have given the idea of Manjunatha.